memeorandum: Rudy's interview and Trump's lies create a crisis (Jeffrey Toobin/CNN)

3:30 PM ET, May 4, 2018

Top Items:

Eileen Sullivan / New York Times:

Trump Undercuts Giuliani About Payments to Stormy Daniels — WASHINGTON — President Trump undercut his attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, on Friday, and said the former New York mayor will eventually get the facts right regarding a payment to a pornographic actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

Discussion: The Western Journal, Political Wire and TIME

Jeffrey Toobin / CNN:

Rudy's interview and Trump's lies create a crisis — Jeffrey Toobin is CNN's chief legal analyst and author, most recently, of “American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst”, and “The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court.” Follow him on Twitter @JeffreyToobin.

NBC News:

Rudy Giuliani insists Trump wasn't aware of Stormy Daniels reimbursement until recently — Giuliani said when he found out, the president responded “'Oh my goodness, I guess that's what it was for.'” — President Donald Trump only recently found out that he reimbursed his personal attorney …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Washington Post, Shareblue Media, Townhall, Philly.com, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, NBC News, Splinter, DCReport.org and Political Wire

Kevin Liptak / CNN:
Trump walks back Giuliani: 'He'll get his facts straight'

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Forbes, The Nation, WQAD-TV, The Root, Splinter, Joe.My.God., KTLA and Fox News

Wall Street Journal:
The Stormy Daniels Damage

Discussion: MSNBC, Raw Story, Shareblue Media, Hot Air, Mediaite, Public Pool, Political Wire and Washington Post

John Wagner / Washington Post:
Giuliani tries to clarify comments on Trump's reimbursement of payment to porn star Stormy Daniels

Discussion: Political Wire

Aidan McLaughlin / Mediaite:
MSNBC's Deutsch: Michael Cohen Told Me Giuliani 'Doesn't Know What He's Talking About'

Discussion: Hot Air, CANNONFIRE and Bloomberg

NBC News:
Democrats might have a better chance to flip the Senate than you think

Discussion: The Guardian, MSNBC and Daily Kos

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Rudy Giuliani tries to clean up his hubris-inspired mess

Discussion: Faithwire, BuzzFeed and Washington Press

Associated Press: The Latest: Giuliani tries to clarify hush money comments

John Santucci / ABC News:
Giuliani believes ‘50/50’ chance Mueller subpoenas President Trump

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mother Jones, Politico, Washington Post, HuffPost, Mediaite, Associated Press, Above the Law, The Week, Washington Press and Political Wire

Cristiano Lima / Politico:
Trump's relationship with Giuliani gets rocky

Discussion: Washington Post, RedState, Breitbart and Washington Monthly

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon:
The Media Is Killing the Democratic Party

Discussion: The Week and HuffPost

Rachel Weiner / Washington Post:

Federal judge in Virginia grills special counsel on Manafort investigation … A federal judge in Virginia on Friday grilled lawyers from the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about the motivations for bringing a bank and tax fraud case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Shakesville

Jake Gibson / Fox News:

Federal judge accuses Mueller's team of ‘lying,’ trying to target Trump: 'C'mon man!' — Giuliani: Mueller investigation should be dismissed — A federal judge on Friday harshly rebuked Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team during a hearing for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort …

Discussion: National Review, The Federalist, IJR, Sean Hannity, Daily Wire and neo-neocon

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Judge challenges Mueller's actions in Manafort case — A federal judge sharply challenged Special Counsel Robert Mueller's prosecution team Friday, questioning how its indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on financial charges relates to Mueller's core mandate …

Discussion: Vox, RedState, ABC News and Daily Kos

CNN:

Judge in Manafort case says Mueller's aim is to hurt Trump — (CNN)A federal judge expressed deep skepticism Friday in the bank fraud case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's office against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, at one point saying he believes that Mueller's motivation …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, CNBC, TheBlaze, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NTK Network and CANNONFIRE

Sarah N. Lynch / Reuters:
U.S. judge questions special counsel's powers in Manafort case

Discussion: Bloomberg, The Rush Limbaugh Show and Instapundit

Jacqueline Thomsen / The Hill: Mueller requests 70 blank subpoenas in Manafort case

Matthew Nussbaum / Politico:

Pence doctor resigns after Jackson debacle — Vice President Mike Pence's physician has resigned, the latest fallout from the collapse of Ronny Jackson's nomination for secretary of Veterans Affairs. — Dr. Jennifer Peña, who like Jackson is a military physician detailed to the White House …

Discussion: National Review, Axios, Raw Story, IJR, Roll Call and Daily Wire

CNN:

Pence's doctor resigns after reports of concerns about Jackson's conduct — Washington (CNN)The White House physician assigned to Vice President Mike Pence, Jennifer Pena, has resigned, his office told CNN in a statement Friday. Pena worked in the White House Medical Unit.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Trump lives out his LBJ fantasy: no chief of staff

Discussion: Washington Post, ABC News, Politico and MSNBC

Nancy Cook / Politico:
Trump's loyal outsiders elbow Kelly out

Discussion: Axios, Daily Kos, The Daily Beast and Washington Post

Nick Miroff / Washington Post:

Trump administration will end protections for 50,000 Hondurans living in U.S. since 1999 — More than 50,000 Hondurans who have been allowed to live and work in the United States since 1999 will have until January 2020 to leave the country or face deportation, the Department of Homeland Security …

McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Trump administration to send 57,000 immigrants back to Honduras

Discussion: Rewire.News and Mother Jones

Miriam Jordan / New York Times:
Thousands of Hondurans to Lose Protected Status in the U.S.

Discussion: Axios

Fareed Zakaria / Washington Post:
Trump is manufacturing an immigration crisis. Here's why that helps him.

Discussion: Reuters

CNN:

Exclusive: Nunes demands Justice Department records. Then he doesn't read them. — (CNN)House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes was livid. — For months, he had been demanding a fully uncensored version of a highly sensitive document from the Justice Department explaining …

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:
Why the Justice Department Is Defiant

Discussion: RedState

Mark Penn / The Hill:
Rod Rosenstein is not above the law

Discussion: Breitbart

Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:

Donald Trump's Pursuit of an Oval Office Meeting with Vladimir Putin — Inside the mystery behind the President's surprise invitation to Russia's leader, and his team's struggle to figure out what to do about it. — Late on Monday evening, the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, started making calls to European allies.

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

Sex Abuse Scandal's Latest Casualty: The 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature — STOCKHOLM — The Nobel Prize in Literature, the world's most prestigious accolade for writing, will not be awarded this year, for the first time since 1949, as the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal that has battered …

Discussion: Svenska Akademien, The Atlantic, BBC, New Republic, Althouse, BOOK RIOT, Jezebel, CNN, NBC News and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Molly Redden / HuffPost:

He Was Accused Of Attempted Rape. He Became A Progressive Star Anyway. — For more than a decade, women alleged that Clay Johnson, a leader in political tech, physically and verbally abused them. — On April 28, 2008, Sarah Schacht received an email that terrified her.

Washington Post:

Behind Erik Prince's China venture — The Blackwater founder has cut a lucrative security-training deal with Chinese insiders. But is it against U.S. interests? — Beijing's International Security Defense College, which boasts of becoming “the largest private security training school in China …

Discussion: Axios

Washington Post:

Influential outsiders have played a key role in Scott Pruitt's foreign travel … Scott Pruitt's itinerary for a February trip to Israel was remarkable by any standard for an Environmental Protection Agency administrator: A stop at a controversial Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, HuffPost, Daily Kos, The Daily Caller, Splinter, The Week, The Guardian, CNN, CBS News, Political Wire and New York Times

Elaina Plott / The Atlantic:
A Pruitt Aide's Attack on Zinke Angers the White House

Discussion: Raw Story, MSNBC, Washington Post, ABC News, Associated Press, CBS News, Politico, Weekly Standard, Washington Press, Vox, Mother Jones, Daily Kos, Joe.My.God., Jezebel, Political Wire and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Geoff Edgers / Washington Post:

As R. Kelly's career flourished, an industry overlooked allegations of abusive behavior toward young women — R. Kelly was in trouble again, and it was really bad this time. It was 2002, and police were investigating a sex tape that appeared to show the R&B superstar with a 14-year-old girl.

BuzzFeed:
Two More Women Speak Out About R. Kelly's Alleged Sexual Abuse

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Root, The Week, Jezebel, Vox, theGrio and Glamour

German Lopez / Vox:

How to watch Trump's NRA speech, and what to expect — The president is speaking at the NRA's first annual meeting since the Parkland, Florida, shooting. — President Donald Trump will soon speak at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Dallas.

Discussion: Axios, Washington Post, ABC News, YouTube and Gizmodo

The Daily Beast:

Report: Qatar Just Bought $6.5M Apartment in Trump Property — Qatar's mission to the United Nations bought an apartment valued at $6.5 million in New York's Trump World Tower on Jan. 17, one month after a judge ruled that President Donald Trump was not violating the Emoluments Clause …

Discussion: The Guardian

Nathaniel Meyersohn / CNNMoney:

Unemployment is below 4% for the first time since 2000 — The job market hasn't been this good in a very long time. — The unemployment rate dropped below 4% in April for the first time since 2000. The Labor Department reported Friday that it fell to 3.9% — inching closer to territory not seen in half a century.

Discussion: Grabien News and twitchy.com

Adam B. Schiff / New York Times:

Democrats: Don't Take the Bait on Impeachment — In 2010, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I led the effort to impeach a federal judge from New Orleans named Thomas Porteous Jr. He was accused of multiple acts of corruption, some of which preceded his appointment to the federal bench …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and National Review

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:

Never mind the Nobel talk. Trump has a different mission on North Korea. — The prospect of winning the Nobel Peace Prize is understandably tantalizing for President Trump. After all the contempt he has faced from the political establishment, watching liberal heads explode at the suggestion …

Discussion: HuffPost and Axios